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Obsidian

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Obsidian description

Obsidian is a free note-taking app focused on linking ideas. It lets you connect notes visually, creating a "web of knowledge" on your computer. Your data is stored locally as plain text files, giving you control and portability. While free for personal use, paid syncing and publishing services are available. Thousands of community plugins and themes allow extensive customization. Obsidian is ideal for individuals wanting a flexible, powerful tool to manage their information and thinking.


Who is using Obsidian?


Who is Obsidian best for

Obsidian is a robust note-taking app that excels at linking ideas. We find it's best for individuals or small teams wanting a flexible way to manage information and build a connected knowledge base. Users appreciate its customizability with plugins and local file storage for data control. It's a great fit if you value creating your own personal Wikipedia of interconnected thoughts and research.

  • Perfect for small teams (1-100) or solopreneurs seeking powerful, customizable knowledge management.

  • Fits any industry where deep thinking, research, and knowledge sharing are key, from education to technology.


Obsidian features

Supported

Create connected notes: Obsidian allows you to create connections between your notes, linking ideas, people, places, books, and more to build your own personal Wikipedia.

Supported

Visualize note relationships: Obsidian provides a graph view to visualize the relationships between your notes, helping you find hidden patterns in your thinking.

Supported

Infinite canvas: Obsidian offers Canvas, an infinite space for research, brainstorming, diagramming, and laying out your ideas.

Supported

Customizable with plugins: Obsidian is highly customizable with thousands of plugins and an open API, allowing you to tailor it to your personal workflow.

Supported

Sync across devices: With Obsidian Sync, access your notes on any device, secured with end-to-end encryption.

Supported

Fine-grained sync control: Obsidian Sync provides fine-grained control, allowing you to decide which files and preferences you want to sync to which devices.

Supported

Version history: Obsidian Sync offers version history, allowing you to easily track changes between revisions, with one year of version history for every note.

Supported

Collaboration: Obsidian Sync enables collaboration, letting you work with your team on shared files without compromising your private data.

Supported

Publish your notes online: With Obsidian Publish, turn your notes into an online wiki, knowledge base, documentation, or digital garden.

Supported

Seamless editing with Publish: Obsidian Publish allows seamless editing, allowing you to publish your notes instantly from the Obsidian app, and make it easy for readers to explore your web of ideas.

Supported

Publish customization: Obsidian Publish allows customization, giving control over the look and feel of your site with themes, custom domains, password protection, and more.


Obsidian pricing

See the Obsidian pricing page.

  • Obsidian has a free plan.

Sync
$4 per user/year

Sync notes across devices, end-to-end encryption, version history, collaborate on shared vaults, priority support.

Publish
$8 per site/year

Publish notes to the web, no technical knowledge required, customizable theme, graph and full text search, priority support.


Obsidian alternatives

  • Logo of Simplenote
    Simplenote
    Clear, clean note-taking. Syncs everywhere. Free.
    Read more
  • Logo of Scrintal
    Scrintal
    Connected thought mapping on an infinite canvas.
    Read more
  • Logo of Microsoft OneNote
    Microsoft OneNote
    Your digital notebook: capture, organize, and share anything.
    Read more
  • Logo of Zoho Notebook
    Zoho Notebook
    Visually stunning notes. Organized. Synced. Free. Private.
    Read more
  • Logo of GoodNotes
    GoodNotes
    Digital note-taking, smooth handwriting, searchable, organized notebooks.
    Read more
  • Logo of Notability
    Notability
    Note-taking and PDF annotation made easy for Apple users.
    Read more

Obsidian FAQ

  • What is Obsidian and what does Obsidian do?

    Obsidian is a versatile note-taking app designed for connecting ideas. We find that it excels at linking notes visually to create a personal knowledge base. It's free for personal use, with optional syncing and publishing services. Its many community plugins and themes make it incredibly customizable.

  • How does Obsidian integrate with other tools?

    Obsidian's integration capabilities are primarily focused on community-developed plugins and an open API. We find this approach allows extensive customization and connection with various other tools, though it requires more user effort than some other apps. Official integrations are available for syncing and publishing services.

  • What the main competitors of Obsidian?

    We find that Obsidian competes with several other note-taking and knowledge management tools. These include Roam Research, Logseq, Notion, Bear, and Craft, each offering similar features with varying approaches to organization, collaboration, and pricing.

  • Is Obsidian legit?

    Yes, Obsidian is legitimate software. It's a popular note-taking application known for its robust features and active community. We find it safe and reliable for personal use. Obsidian is free for core features, with optional paid services for syncing and publishing.

  • How much does Obsidian cost?

    Obsidian is free to use. We find that the optional Sync add-on costs $4/user/month while Publish is $8/site/month. Catalyst supporter license is $25 one-time and Commercial use license is $50/user/year.

  • Is Obsidian customer service good?

    We don't have customer service reviews available for Obsidian at this time. Therefore, we can't comment on the quality of their customer service.


Reviewed by

MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.